Pre-birth origins of allergy and asthma.

Allergy is a chronic disease that can develop as early as infancy, suggesting that early life factors are important in its aetiology. Variable associations between size at birth, a crude marker of the fetal environment, and allergy have been reported in humans and require comprehensive review. Associations between birth weight and allergy are however confounded in humans, and we and others have therefore begun exploring the effects of early life events on allergy in experimental models.

Cognitive deficits in obstructive sleep apnea: Insights from a meta-review and comparison with deficits observed in COPD, insomnia, and sleep deprivation.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a nocturnal breathing disorder that is associated with cognitive impairment. The primary determinants of cognitive deficits in OSA are thought to be sleep disruption and blood gas abnormalities. Cognitive impairment is also seen in other disorders that are characterised primarily by sleep disturbance (e.

Effect on health-related quality of life of ongoing feedback during a 12-month maintenance walking programme in patients with COPD: a randomized controlled trial.

Background And Objective: In patients with COPD, this study evaluated the effect on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of adding ongoing feedback to a 12-month unsupervised maintenance walking programme.

Methods: Participants were randomized to either an intervention group (IG) or control group (CG). Both groups completed the same 2-month supervised, walking training programme followed by a 12-month unsupervised maintenance walking programme.

The reliability and validity of measurements of human dental casts made by an intra-oral 3D scanner, with conventional hand-held digital callipers as the comparison measure.

Aim: Intra-oral 3D scanning of dentitions has the potential to provide a fast, accurate and non-invasive method of recording dental information. The aim of this study was to assess the reliability of measurements of human dental casts made using a portable intra-oral 3D scanner appropriate for field use.

Method: Two examiners each measured 84 tooth and 26 arch features of 50 sets of upper and lower human dental casts using digital hand-held callipers, and secondly using the measuring tool provided with the Zfx IntraScan intraoral 3D scanner applied to the virtual dental casts.

Influence of Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) Alleles and Killer Cell Immunoglobulin-Like Receptors (KIR) Types on Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia (HIT).

Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) is an unpredictable, life-threatening, immune-mediated reaction to heparin. Variation in human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes is now used to prevent immune-mediated adverse drug reactions. Combinations of HLA alleles and killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) are associated with multiple autoimmune diseases and infections.

Effect of frequency on pressure cost of ventilation and gas exchange in newborns receiving high-frequency oscillatory ventilation.

BackgroundWe hypothesized that ventilating at the resonant frequency of the respiratory system optimizes gas exchange while limiting the mechanical stress to the lung in newborns receiving high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV). We characterized the frequency dependence of oscillatory mechanics, gas exchange, and pressure transmission during HFOV.MethodsWe studied 13 newborn infants with a median (interquartile range) gestational age of 29.

Estimating the magnitude of morphoscapes: how to measure the morphological component of biodiversity in relation to habitats using geometric morphometrics.

Ecological indicators are currently developed to account for the different facets of loss of biological diversity due to direct or indirect effects of human activities. Most ecological indicators include species richness as a metric. Others, such as functional traits and phylogenetic diversity, account for differences in species, even when species richness is the same.

Altered attentional filters in subjects with graded levels of sensorineural hearing loss.

Near-threshold tones (targets) in noise that are preceded by cues of the same frequency or occur with a high probability are detected better than tones of other frequencies that may occur with a lower probability (probes); the better detection of targets than probes defines the attentional filter. We measured attentional filters using a cued probe-signal procedure with a two-interval forced-choice (2IFC) method in normal-hearing subjects (N = 15) and subjects with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL; N = 14) with a range of hearing levels. Attentional filters were altered in SNHL subjects, who detected low-frequency probes as well as targets at all hearing levels and who detected high-frequency probes increasingly well with increasing hearing level.

Resistance wheel exercise from mid-life has minimal effect on sciatic nerves from old mice in which sarcopenia was prevented.

The ability of resistance exercise, initiated from mid-life, to prevent age-related changes in old sciatic nerves, was investigated in male and female C57BL/6J mice. Aging is associated with cellular changes in old sciatic nerves and also loss of skeletal muscle mass and function (sarcopenia). Mature adult mice aged 15 months (M) were subjected to increasing voluntary resistance wheel exercise (RWE) over a period of 8 M until 23 M of age.

The development of curvature in the porcine radioulna.

Long bone curvature in animal limbs has long been a subject of interest and much work has explored why long bones should be curved. However, the 'when' and 'how' of curvature development is poorly understood. It has been shown that the rat tibia fails to attain its normal curvature if the action of muscles is removed early in life, but it is not clear if this is because the curvature fails to develop or if the bone becomes straighter without the action of muscles.

Public health intervention over four decades for the children in the Australian Capital Territory: Have we reached the point of diminishing returns?

Background: Most of the developed world has seen some substantial improvements in the dental health of children over the past four decades owing to advances in service access, fluoride exposure, socio-economic development and improved diets, with the DMFT score of 12 year-olds dropping from well over 10 down to around one.

Aim: To examine the question of advancing dental health for children even further using the same set of tools as we have to date by asking the question: Have we come to a point of diminishing returns? The study examines the long-term, near optimum settings of the known public dental health variables in the Australian Capital Territory.

Results: Despite having the most ideal and persistent dental health optimised situation, there remains underlying dental caries at a severity level of just below 1 DMFT (12 year olds), and over the last decade the rate of diminishing incidence and prevalence of decay has slowed and arguably stopped.

Orthodontic Treatment: Real Risk for Dental Age Estimation in Adults?

Dental age estimation becomes a challenge once the root formation is concluded. In living adults, one dental age indicator is the formation of secondary dentine, also associated with orthodontic treatment as well as root shortening. The aim of this study was to establish whether these secondary effects of orthodontic treatment could generate a statistically significant difference in dental age estimations when using Kvaal's method.

Reliability and repeatability of pulp volume reconstruction through three different volume calculations.

Objective: To test the variability of the volume measurements when different segmentation methods are applied in pulp volume reconstruction.

Materials And Methods: Osirix® and ITK-SNAP software were used. Different segmentation methods (Part A) and volume approaches (Part B) were tested in a sample of 21 dental CBCT's from upper canines.

Male Dispersal Pattern in Golden Snub-nosed Monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana) in Qinling Mountains and its Conservation Implication.

Golden snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana) is one of the most endangered primate species found in China, exhibiting multilevel society consisting of several one-male-females together with their offspring units (OMU), and all-male units (AMU). Female dispersal patterns of the species within herd have been well documented, whereas those of the males within or between herds are still poorly understood. Our results based a long-term observation indicate that more than half of sub-adult males, and half of the deposed males that stayed a short period in OMU disperse between herds, three of them established their own OMU in new herd after the dispersal.

Phenome-wide scanning identifies multiple diseases and disease severity phenotypes associated with HLA variants.

Although many phenotypes have been associated with variants in human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes, the full phenotypic impact of HLA variants across all diseases is unknown. We imputed HLA genomic variation from two populations of 28,839 and 8431 European ancestry individuals and tested association of HLA variation with 1368 phenotypes. A total of 104 four-digit and 92 two-digit HLA allele phenotype associations were significant in both discovery and replication cohorts, the strongest being and type 1 diabetes.

Optical coherence tomography-based contact indentation for diaphragm mechanics in a mouse model of transforming growth factor alpha induced lung disease.

This study tested the utility of optical coherence tomography (OCT)-based indentation to assess mechanical properties of respiratory tissues in disease. Using OCT-based indentation, the elastic modulus of mouse diaphragm was measured from changes in diaphragm thickness in response to an applied force provided by an indenter. We used a transgenic mouse model of chronic lung disease induced by the overexpression of transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-α), established by the presence of pleural and peribronchial fibrosis and impaired lung mechanics determined by the forced oscillation technique and plethysmography.

Forelimb bone curvature in terrestrial and arboreal mammals.

It has recently been proposed that the caudal curvature (concave caudal side) observed in the radioulna of terrestrial quadrupeds is an adaptation to the habitual action of the triceps muscle which causes cranial bending strains (compression on cranial side). The caudal curvature is proposed to be adaptive because longitudinal loading induces caudal bending strains (increased compression on the caudal side), and these opposing bending strains counteract each other leaving the radioulna less strained. If this is true for terrestrial quadrupeds, where triceps is required for habitual elbow extension, then we might expect that in arboreal species, where brachialis is habitually required to maintain elbow flexion, the radioulna should instead be cranially curved.

Synthetically controlling dendrimer flexibility improves delivery of large plasmid DNA.

Tools for editing the genome and epigenome have revolutionised the field of molecular biology and represent a new frontier in targeted therapeutic intervention. Although efficiencies and specificities of genome editing technologies have improved with the development of TALEs and CRISPR platforms, intracellular delivery of these larger constructs still remains a challenge using existing delivery agents. Viral vectors, including lentiviruses and adeno-associated viruses, as well as some non-viral strategies, such as cationic polymers and liposomes, are limited by packaging capacity, poor delivery, toxicity, and immunogenicity.

Age estimation in adults by dental imaging assessment systematic review.

Importance: The need to rely on proper, simple, and accurate methods for age estimation in adults is still a world-wide issue. It has been well documented that teeth are more resistant than bones to the taphonomic processes, and that the use of methods for age estimation based on dental imaging assessment are not only less invasive than those based on osseous analysis, but also have shown similar or superior accuracy in adults.

Objectives: To summarise the results of some of the recently most recently cited methods for dental age estimation in adults, based on odontometric dental imaging analysis, to establish which is more accurate, accessible, and simple.

Delayed treatment of secondary degeneration following acute optic nerve transection using a combination of ion channel inhibitors.

Studies have shown that a combined application of several ion channel inhibitors immediately after central nervous system injury can inhibit secondary degeneration. However, for clinical use, it is necessary to determine how long after injury the combined treatment of several ion channel inhibitors can be delayed and efficacy maintained. In this study, we delivered Ca entry-inhibiting P2X7 receptor antagonist oxidized-ATP and AMPA receptor antagonist YM872 to the optic nerve injury site an iPRECIO pump immediately, 6 hours, 24 hours and 7 days after partial optic nerve transection surgery.

Non-nuclear Pool of Splicing Factor SFPQ Regulates Axonal Transcripts Required for Normal Motor Development.

Recent progress revealed the complexity of RNA processing and its association to human disorders. Here, we unveil a new facet of this complexity. Complete loss of function of the ubiquitous splicing factor SFPQ affects zebrafish motoneuron differentiation cell autonomously.

Curvature reduces bending strains in the quokka femur.

This study explores how curvature in the quokka femur may help to reduce bending strain during locomotion. The quokka is a small wallaby, but the curvature of the femur and the muscles active during stance phase are similar to most quadrupedal mammals. Our hypothesis is that the action of hip extensor and ankle plantarflexor muscles during stance phase place cranial bending strains that act to reduce the caudal curvature of the femur.

Effects of Season and Estradiol on KNDy Neuron Peptides, Colocalization With D2 Dopamine Receptors, and Dopaminergic Inputs in the Ewe.

Seasonal reproduction in sheep is primarily due to a dramatic increase in the ability of estradiol (E2) to inhibit the pulsatile secretion of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) during the nonbreeding season [anestrus (ANS)]. Recent findings suggest that kisspeptin/neurokinin B/dynorphin (KNDy) neurons of the arcuate nucleus (ARC) play a key role in conveying this negative feedback influence, with dopaminergic projections from the retrochiasmatic area acting upon KNDy cells to decrease kisspeptin release and thus inhibit GnRH pulses. However, several questions remain unanswered: (1) Are the coexpressed KNDy peptides, neurokinin B (NKB) and dynorphin, under seasonal regulation similar to kisspeptin? (2) Are seasonal changes in these peptides and their colocalization of D2 dopamine receptors (D2Rs) steroid dependent? and (3) Do KNDy neurons receive direct input from dopaminergic terminals? We used dual- and triple-label immunofluorescence to analyze brain sections through the ARC of ovariectomized (OVX) and OVX plus E2 ewes perfused during either the breeding season or ANS.

L-type calcium channel: Clarifying the "oxygen sensing hypothesis".

The heart is able to respond acutely to changes in oxygen tension. Since ion channels can respond rapidly to stimuli, the "ion channel oxygen sensing hypothesis" has been proposed to explain acute adaptation of cells to changes in oxygen demand. However the exact mechanism for oxygen sensing continues to be debated.